Waves Get Well Against Nebraska Omaha : Basketball: Slow-starting Pepperdine, still suffering from its loss to DePaul, finally gets untracked in the second half and beats Division II team, 62-41.

Pepperdine, which looked a little ill in losing to DePaul last weekend, got well Monday night against Nebraska Omaha.

The Waves beat Nebraska Omaha, 62-41, before 750 at Firestone Fieldhouse, but it didn’t start out as a runaway.

Pepperdine (4-1) looked sluggish and trailed the cold-shooting Mavericks through much of the first half, falling behind by as many as eight points.

The Waves did manage a 27-26 lead at halftime, but they did so against a team that shot only 27% (eight for 30) in the half.

The Mavericks (3-1) managed to stay in the game before halftime by outrebounding the Waves, 26-16, and making nine of 12 free throws.

Pepperdine’s Geoff Lear, who was averaging a team-high 14 rebounds before the game, was held to two rebounds in the half and finished with five. Nebraska Omaha’s 6-foot-10 center, Phil Cartwright, had a game-high 12 rebounds, including eight in the first half.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury must have prescribed a strong remedy at halftime because the Waves outscored Nebraska Omaha, 20-4, in the first seven minutes of the second half and took a 47-30 lead, turning a tight game into a rout.

The Mavericks might have come back if they had any hope of finding the basket, but they shot a dismal 17% in the second half (six for 35) and 22% for the game (14 for 65). Pepperdine shot 46% in the game (25 for 54).

Doug Christie led Pepperdine with 16 points, and Lear added 11 points. For the Mavericks, Trent Neal had a team-high 13 points.

Asbury said that he thought his players were tired after playing five games in nine days. He also said that the Waves hadn’t had “long enough to get over the DePaul thing (an 85-64 loss last Saturday.)”

He said that playing Nebraska Omaha taught him a lesson. “If you’re going to schedule a Division II team, don’t schedule a good one.”